Home / Poker News December 2008 / Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet earn unwanted prime-time attention
Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet earn unwanted prime-time attention
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2008-12-03 13:17
The
Absolute Poker and
Ultimate Bet cheating scandals that rocked the online poker world earlier this year were featured by a Washington Post article and by a special investigatory piece, authored and aired by “60 minutes”.
The article and the TV piece provided a more or less accurate picture of the events that the online poker community has long been in the know of.
While the Washington Post article aimed for accuracy, the “60 minutes” piece was more of a sensationalistic approach meant to capture the imagination of the audience.
The Washington Post piece fist examined the way a group of players had unveiled the ongoing cheating, then went on to bash the online poker industry for the loosely regulated environment in which it operates.
The PPA quickly grabbed on to this point, re-iterating the need for the legalization and proper regulation of online poker and gambling in America, in a statement released the day following the airing of the TV-piece.
The “60 minutes” special took the dramatic approach much further than the article, taking aim at the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the auditing authority behind the two concerned poker websites, accusing them of incompetence, lack of experience and throwing a bunch of generalized accusations into their back-yard.
The fact that Joe Tokwiro Norton, who had been chief of the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawake before he stepped down and acquired Absolute Poker and
UltimateBet was also brought up. According to a statement issued by the KGC in the wake of the above mentioned publications, what the producers of the show willingly left out was the fact that the software responsible for the cheating was installed before Tokwiro ENRG US took over, back when the poker rooms belonged to Excapsa. The TV piece failed to mention anything about the fact that Tokwiro ENRG US has pursued legal action against Excapsa on the matter, and with the funds resulting from the settlement they refunded all the players who had fallen victims to the scheme.
In their statement, the KGC has also iterated that they took all the necessary measures to protect the players’ interest in earnest.
